On June 16, 1976, young people in Soweto staged an uprising that is now celebrated annually as Youth Day. In 1975, demonstrations broke out in secondary schools across Africa in response to a directive issued by the Bantu Education Department at the time, which stated that English and Afrikaans had to coexist on an equal footing as languages of instruction in secondary schools. The uprising in Soweto in 1976, during which the police and the army killed more than 600 people, the majority of them children,

 

 

 

As South African youths, we commemorate June 16 by using the 1976 incident as motivation, and some even hold events where they act out the 1976 incident while dressed in school uniform to honor the youth and students who were killed during the riots. This day is very important to South African youth as it reminds us that in 1976, youth died for our freedom. so that we can get an equal education with whites and have the same opportunities as them.

But if you look at today’s situation, the education we receive sometimes amounts to zero because there are many young South Africans who are graduates and still unemployed. Yesterday, when people were commemorating youth day, a young lady touched many hearts after she posted her photo, portraying Hector Paterson’s picture but with a different message about unemployment. She posted her pictures wearing a graduation gown and carrying someone just like how Hector was carried, but in her picture she was carrying a board written “No jobs”. See the photo below.

(But People noticed that the child is laughing)

This picture has a very painful message than one can see. According to my interpretation, she’s trying to say Hector died for us to go to school and now we are dictating but our government is failing to create jobs. In short, she’s saying Hector’s blood was spilled for nothing because the education we have is not helping in any way since we are unemployed.

What do you think the government should do to deal with this issue of unemployment? Mind you, they have been promising jobs since 1994, and today we see no changes. Leave your views today.